Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG Classico Riserva “Nicola Ferrari Black Label” 2016
Wine Description
The Riserva that bears Nicola Ferrari's own name is the top of the Monte Santoccio cellar, an Amarone made only in small quantity from the best fruit of the estate's three hectares at Fumane. The method is the one Ferrari learned during his years with Giuseppe Quintarelli: hand picked Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella dried slowly through the winter, a patient fermentation and a spell in cask longer than the standard Amarone, as the Riserva designation requires.
The extra time shows in the glass: dried morello cherry and fig, sweet tobacco, cocoa and balsamic herbs, dense but carried by the freshness of the Classica hills. The 2016 has entered its drinking window and will hold for many years; give it an hour in a decanter. Serve at 18 °C with braised game, pastissada de caval or very aged mountain cheese, and let the last glass stand alone.
Winery
Monte Santoccio is the small Fumane estate of Nicola Ferrari, who started at twenty six in the cellar of Giuseppe Quintarelli and took from those years the habit of controlling every step, from vine to bottle. The property covers just over three hectares of owned vineyard in the Valpolicella Classica, farmed naturally and picked entirely by hand. The range stays deliberately short and traditional: Valpolicella Classico and Superiore, a ripasso, Amarone and the Recioto Stella, wines that aim at clarity, patience and honest value rather than size.
